Revolution in Our Times?

The following statement is reposted from East Coast Renegades:

We are in an historic moment. The economic crisis is deepening the poverty gap and its racial disparities, expanding and intensifying police repression, and causing the political system to waver and fracture. It appears this process will continue, giving rise to more radical and extreme struggles nationally and globally. Yet despite its potentials, the Occupy movement has failed to sustain and grow into a revolutionary mass movement. Now is the time to regroup, re-strategize, and commit ourselves to taking action as best we can in the outbreaks that are coming.

The authors of this statement are forming a network on the east coast, and we hope others will join us. Our network brings together old and new militants to share analysis, strategy, tactics, resources and methods of struggle. Together we want to open up a space for principled debate, in which we respectfully challenge and develop each-other’s ideas about revolutionary practice, and push each other to do better than we are doing. We want to develop our ability to intervene in crises, whether they be cases of police violence, community violence, austerity cuts, housing occupations, prisons strikes, labor struggles, etc.

We believe our central task is to seek out the revolutionary elements of people’s everyday experiences, to support and push this self-activity in ever more radical directions. At the same time, we must ruthlessly critique everything that holds it back: both the racist, sexist, reactionary elements within it, and the liberals and self-appointed leaders who co-opt it, such as politicians, nonprofit staff, and union bureaucrats.

While working toward the worldwide overthrow of the capitalist system, many in our network are currently agitating and organizing in urban neighborhoods of color, and feel this work will be central to any revolutionary strategy in the U.S. In order to build local popular power that can challenge the existing order, we must connect a wide array of labor, immigrant, student, feminist, queer, rural, and other struggles. We understand that many of these categories overlap with each other, and are prevalent within neighborhoods of color.

We hope our efforts will move us closer to a form of organization that is useful for our time, different from the vanguard parties and structureless networks of the past, and we think this grouping could serve as an embryo for such an organization down the road. Together we will study and critique past revolutions and current movements, and undertake serious political education. We will grow together as committed militants, analyzing and acting in the world around us, and working toward revolution in our time.

The above statement was written by some of the same folks who put out the Con Ed flyers I reposted earlier. The graphic is one of the brilliant works of agitprop art produced by Emory Douglas of the Black Panther Party way back in the day. I'm not sure I'm as negative about the Occupy movement having already "failed," but I think this statement makes some great points I completely agree with.